Uconn

UConn men's basketball: Night at the Garden a special event BY ED DAIGNEAULT REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

NEW YORK — The UConn men will not play a tournament at Madison Square Garden this year. Tuesday night was the closest thing the Huskies were going to get to one.

UConn took on No. 25 North Carolina State in the building, playing the second game of a doubleheader as part of the Jimmy V Classic. It was a four-team, one-night event but it might as well have been a tournament for the Huskies. They won't be at MSG for the Big East Tournament in March, the result of the NCAA's postseason ban.

For that reason, their debut appearance in the Jimmy V Classic meant quite a bit to the Huskies.

"It's something big," said UConn junior guard Shabazz Napier, who won a Big East tourney title here as a freshman. "A lot of great players played there. Just to be on the court, it feels like The Apollo. That atmosphere just feels so crazy. Lights on you, everything else is dim and dark, you can't see any fans but you can here their voices. That's basketball mecca right there.

"It's a great place to play in."

Napier and fellow junior Niels Giffey are the only Huskies who have played a significant number of games at the Garden, each of them having played eight. Sophomores DeAndre Daniels and Ryan Boatright played in three conference tournament games last season. For everybody else, it was a new experience.

R.J. Evans, despite having been born in New York and spending many summers in the city with family, had never played at the Garden. He returned from a two-game injury absence to play against the Wolfpack. Freshman Omar Calhoun is from Queens and had only entered the Garden to attend Knicks games a few times in his life.

"It's something that a New York kid always dreams of playing in," said Calhoun, who had to find plenty of tickets for family and friends. "I'm thinking packed house, crowd screaming and yelling, coming out there with excitement. And everybody just going out there and balling hard. It's an experience that I cherish and want to make the most of it."

UConn has experienced mixed results at the Garden. The Huskies have won seven league tournament titles here and took home the 1988 NIT championship in a victory over Ohio State.

But they are just 8-8 in regular-season games against St. John's at the Garden and prior the 2011 Big East Tournament title run had lost five consecutive opening games in the league get-together.

The Huskies entered Tuesday night 8-8 in other games played at MSG.

He's back: Evans returned to the court after missing two games with a shoulder problem. His status was unknown until the afternoon shoot-around, after which UConn announced Evans would play.

His short absence didn't hurt the Huskies, at least in a results sense. They won both games that he missed. But Evans' steadying hand was missed, as was his penchant for playing physically. Both of those things were expected to help against the Wolfpack and its big guards.

"It is definitely going to be a lift for us," UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. "I'll have another guard to go to that is going to be at my disposal, which I haven't had in the last two games."

In those two games, Ollie played primarily Napier and Boatright at the guard spots, though Calhoun and Giffey can play both forward and guard.

Late is great: UConn's free-throw shooting hadn't been good the past few years, but it has improved drastically this year. It has been especially good late in games.

Entering Tuesday, the Huskies had hit 63 of 68 attempts in the last 10 minutes of games and overtimes. In the last five minutes and overtimes, the Huskies were 54 of 57.

As a team, UConn entered the game shooting 78.4 percent from the line.

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